Blyk goes bye-bye

Blyk, the MVNO which eschewed charging customers in preference to giving away services, has run out of advertisers and will be shutting down UK operations come the end of August. The Blyk premise was to fund the whole operation from advertising to its customers, giving away telecommunications in exchange for targeting …

[Anonymous Coward]

And this is why....

...freetards get a bad name...

OMG you are scum for not continuing to give us free things whilst you burn cash...

This is why there will always be piracy...

OMFG, you want me to PAY for somefink? you are scum....and it's shit you offshore everyfink to china, you money grabbing low life, like i mean, 1p for a dvd, that's like rip off yo scum...OMG I want everything free including my house, like my mum and my dads...."Britney of scumtown aged 14"

[Jim Westrich]

Adtard

Shouldn't this be about "Adtard" not "Freetard"?

[Rosco]

Explern yourselves!

Come on Blyk - I need it explerned to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

Orange takeover/merger

Isn't Orange rumoured to be taking over?

"Today Blyk, the mobile engagement media announces Orange as its exclusive partner in the UK"

http://newsroom.orange.co.uk/2009/07/27/blyk-continues-its-move-from-mvno-to-operator-partnership/

[Steve Evans]

@A/C 15:06

Nice try, but freetards don't/can't use punctuation. Probably because they don't actually stop to take in oxygen (their brain requires so little). So it should be more of a Vicky Pollard style uber-sentence.

"omfg you want me to pay for somefink you are scum and it's shit you offshore everyfink to china you money grabbing low life like i mean 1p for a dvd thats like rip off yo scum omg i want everything free including my house like my mum and my dads"

[Anonymous Coward]

Youth of Today

It does rather appear that the claims that today's youth have a deep understanding of the media and communications landscape are rather flimsy, while the claims that today's youth can't spell and have an unjustified sense of entitlement are rather more plausible...

Paris. She can't spell, and has an unjustified sense of entitlement.

[Ian Ferguson]

Targeted advertising

It's funny how little stock people put into targeted advertising nowadays. A consumer who will put up with any kind of trouble in order to get services cheaper (eg. somebody who will spend hours nosing round charity shops instead of popping to Debenhams) is completely the wrong person to be advertising paid services to.

[Anonymous Coward]

Shift of Business

The message they sent me today telling me about the shut down was damn confusing.

It said you will still get your refills even though they are shutting up shop.

But they also say they are providing advertising on a paid network.

[James 55]

Haha, the comments on the original article are classic

"I think this is stupid, all of my contacts are saved on my Blyk sim and i have destroyed any old sim cards i previously had, this means i have to go out and buy a new sim and transfer every contact onto the sim…."

"OMG…no Blyk cannot end in the UK!!!! My life will be completely in shambles - i will not have much communication in my life without my fone and free credit!!! Why does it need to end here in the UK?? Could we at least know the reason behind our favourite network ending service in UK? Please this is not nice to know!" <<< (Was this a Reg reader taking le piss? I can't believe it's a real comment)

"I think this is a really lame idea as I don’t see why the people of the UK should suffer from this and other people in other countries can benefit." <<< Really? A daily fail reader?

"NOOOOO!!! Don’t leave blyk :( i needs you , lots of us do.

why you leave?" <<< Do you speak English?

" :( But I don’t want blyk to end :(" <<< WWWWaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!

[dutchconsultant.baywords.com]

Wrong model

The model as an independed MVNO was just wrong and not sustainable. The model being setup in the Netherlands is a less riskier one; offering the service with a big operator instead of trying to compete with all the other existing (cheap) MVNO's. It's not that Blyk is offering something new, just slightly cheaper (and for most customers not a reason to change operator since the only thing the average customer wants is a new-fancy mobile once in a while).

[PPPie]

Dead Parrot

Sad to say it but the UK is dying. They need to just end welfare and lower the price of food. Cut taxes on everything.

[John Smith 19]

Blyk?

Weren't they big in South Africa??

[Michael 28]

whats wrong with freetards?

Maybe el reg ( and the Daily mail website too) should go subscription .

I think blyk failed cos the advertisers moved to BT. I get a half dozen spam messages on my phone each day.

[10.0.0.1]

@John Smith 19

New keyboard please!

That is all

[Michael Darling]

*e-sigh*

I've been with Blyk for ages - never had any complaints with it. Not surprised they've run out of money, as I was only getting adverts every couple of weeks (most of them government-funded, telling me to stop drinking and go to uni) and they haven't given out new invites for months. I'll be sad to see it go, though. Not all of us are illiterate monkeys, in any case.

[Anonymous Coward]

Great Idea

If I went to the bank with a business plan like this it would get laughed out of the office (BM= Bank Manager):

Me, Hi, I'd like £10 Million please

BM, What for

Me, I am going to set up a business and give free stuff (music, text's, calls, laptops, whatever) away

BM, OK, so how are you going to make money

Me, I'm going to sell the user base as a target for advertisers

BM, and you think advertisers will pay to send adverts to people whose main motivation is getting something for nothing

Me, Sure, it works for, well, everyone does it on the web so it must work, right

BM, Thanks for your idea but FU$K off!

[Ian 25]

Utterly predictable

I've been waiting since the launch for this to happen. They clearly didn't learn from all the previous failures who used this business model. As an advertiser I wouldn't touch this kind of service with a bargepole (which explains why the Govt is about the only one on the service, cos "return on investment" ain't in their vocab).